Go Vote! And Some Fun Stuff from the Garden

It is midterm election day today. Please find your polling place and go vote. I know there is no president on the ballot this time, but I’m sure you have important elections for Congress and possibly Senate plus there may be other fun things to voice your opinion on like state constitutional changes and things like that. It is your right and privilege in this great nation to vote, so find out what you’re voting on and get out and get it done. And remind your friends and family to go vote also. It really doesn’t hurt. I like to go after school–crazy, I know, but I take all the kids so they can see how important it is to me. Of course we’ve already been discussing who/what we’re voting for and why with them, but if you haven’t been, it might be a good time to have a conversation with your kids about voting, government, and individual liberties, or whatever you want to discuss as you go to and from the polls today.

And now for some fun from the garden. We had a freeze last week and so took everything out of the garden except the carrots which are still out there covered up. But after taking it all out of the garden, it had to go somewhere where it wouldn’t freeze, so it all ended up in the house. Here’s the wagon of winter squash in my living room.

The wagon is back outside now, but the squash are still hanging around looking for a home. The pale acorn squash looking guys are called Thelma Sanders’ Sweet Potato Squash and I think the big pinkish ones are Sweet Meat Squash, but I’m not entirely certain. I planted four kinds of winter squash and I don’t think they all produced and I didn’t keep track of which plant was where, but they’re the right size and shape for a Sweet Meat Squash, just the ones I’ve had in the past were bluish-gray on the skin instead of pink. I’m sure they’ll be delicious whatever they are. Not sure about the smaller round ones, but that one with the crack had to get eaten already.

Next, here’s some potatoes–also living in the living room until yesterday when I finally cleared out a space for them in the food room. We do not have a usable space under the house or a basement or a root cellar which would all be more ideal places for long term storage of potatoes, so we do what we can and put them on the floor of the food room where it’s cool. Potatoes need to breathe, so don’t pack them in a plastic or metal container or seal them up in anything or they’ll rot prematurely.

This was the best potato harvest we’ve had since moving here. Probably because they got lots of water. Some of the plants got a little carried away and made some huge potatoes. Others were not so productive, but overall we ended up with a bunch of potatoes.

And this big guy is a cucumber I was letting go to seed. You let them ripen beyond the eating stage until they’re big and soft. This one’s plenty big, but I’m letting it sit in the house for another week or so before getting to the seeds just to make sure it’s nice and mature. It is a non-hybrid variety. Saving the seeds from a hybrid cucumber will result in who knows what kind of plants when you plant them, but seeds from non-hybrids will reproduce the same kind of plant they came from. Thanks, Mr. Mendel.

I’ve also got half a bucket of tomatoes and a box of onions in the kitchen as well as the radish seed pods. I don’t even like radishes, but I do like a good garden experiment, and last year the radish seed experiment didn’t work out too well, so we’re trying it again. Again, these are a non-hybrid variety. Sometimes it’s also called an heirloom variety. If you’re saving seeds, these are the plants you want to start with. This time I let the radishes go to seed a little earlier so the seeds would have more time to mature. We’ll see how they grow next spring.

So there’s my fun. As soon as I find a place for the squash, I can get my living room back. If I had more space I could just use them as fall decorations until we eat them. Maybe I’ll look into that a little more–I might be able to make a couple of squash arrangements and stash the rest somewhere . . .

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Comments

I am not a big fan of radishes either. But, I read recently that you can use radishes as a "trap crop" and trick bugs by interplanting radishes with brocolli. Instead of the bugs eating your brocolli, they will eat the radishes instead. A small sacrifice in my opinion.

i love radishes. If they get plenty of water they aren't so hot. I grow big white radishes and pickle them. So wonderful! Slice them up like thin french fries and find a simple sweet pickle recipe made with rice vinegar. They're excellent with Asian foods. Add thin strips of carrots to make it colorful if you like.

Wow what an amazing harvest. I don't like radishes either but I read that if you like horse radish you can substitute hot radishes and process in the blender with mayo for a great pink hot sauce good on any kind of meat.